Fighter Jets Were Deployed After a Twitter User Sent Bomb Threats About Two …

The FBI is hunting for a Twitter user who targeted two Atlanta-bound flights with bomb threats Saturday, prompting the military to dispatch fighter jets to escort the planes until they landed safely.(STMW) – A pair of bomb threats from someone claiming to be from Chicago that grounded two planes Saturday at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport were unfounded, the FBI said.ATLANTA (AP) – Police bomb and dog teams searched two planes at Atlanta’s main airport Saturday after authorities received what they called credible bomb threats made online, airport and military officials said.The passenger planes were en-route to Hartsfield-Jackson Airport in Atlanta when the threats were made and two F-16 fighter jets were ordered to escort them to the airport, where they landed safely.

A person using the handle @kingzortic tweeted that bombs had been planted on a Delta flight from Portland and a Southwest flight from Milwaukee, claiming they would be exploded “as part of a nationwide State agreement.” The Twitter user also asserted that an airport security employee helped with the operation. “As part of a nationwide State agreement, a bomb was placed on SWA2492,” the user said in a subsequent tweet directed at Southwest. “It will be detonated at a random time of my choosing…” F-16 jets escorted the flights to their landing Saturday afternoon, and all passengers deplaned safely, Atlanta’s Channel 2 News reported. Special Agent Britt Johnson said: “When the threat came in through Twitter, something was suspicious enough about it to make that determination that caused someone to elevate it to the point that it caused the scramble of the fighter jets and the notifications that occurred,” ABC News reported.

The FBI found no explosives and interrogated all the passengers, and the FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force continues to investigate the threats. “Oh yes, that’s it. 1156, thanks. FBI officials interviewed passengers before they were allowed to leave the airport and bomb disposal experts searched the plane and passengers’ luggage, but found nothing unusual according to officials.

It was smuggled through one of the back entrences [sic] because the airport didn’t…I had one of the airport security help me because he’s an old friend who now works for The State. Larkin and other passengers said they received little information about what actually was happening, but other riders said they followed the events on their phones. In a speech to Iowa conservatives Saturday, Walker ran through a litany of changes he’s implemented that curtailed union power, relaxed teacher tenure laws, strengthened gun rights and restricted abortions. The threat follows heightened security concerns at the Atlanta airport, where five people — including an airplane baggage handler — were charged last month of illegally shipping firearms on passenger jets between Atlanta and New York. The Department of Homeland Security’s TSA recently visited Atlanta’s airport to “to help assess potential vulnerabilities related to site security at airports nationwide behind the sterile area,” spokeswoman Marsha Catron told the Washington Times.

HURLEY, Wis. (AP) – A woman accused of helping lead a protest that disrupted workers at a mining rig in northern Wisconsin has been sentenced to nine months in jail, a stiffer sentence than recommended by prosecutors. In the past, the TSA has claimed that such screening would be too complicated, since many employees go back and forth between secure and unsecure areas.

Katie Kloth, 27, of Weston, was accused of being among 20 people at a rally where protesters threw cans and water bottles at workers to try to intimidate them as they drilled exploratory holes in remote Iron County in 2013. Kloth pleaded no contest to robbery and misdemeanor party to the crime of criminal damage to property, according to Daily Herald Media (http://wdhne.ws/1CDca5Ghttp://wdhne.ws/1CDca5G ). Authorities allege that Kloth appeared to be the protest leader and became enraged when she saw Ideal Drilling Co. employee Stacy Saari videotaping the protest.

Many of the protesters then climbed over the drilling equipment, damaged some of its controls, began throwing shovels, and swore at and verbally threatened the workers during the hour-long incident. County District Attorney Marty Lipske said he recommended four years of probation, and that a probation-only sentence isn’t that uncommon for a first-time offender who is in her 20s. Scott Walker on Friday denied the Menominee Nation’s request for permission to build an off-reservation casino in Kenosha, saying it could leave the state owing a rival tribe millions of dollars. Kenosha Mayor Keith Bosman tells the Kenosha News (http://bit.ly/1wv61kYhttp://bit.ly/1wv61kY ) he’s frustrated with Walker’s denial of the tribal casino at the former Dairyland Greyhound Park.